While diet soda is touted as a healthier alternative to regular soda drinks, it’s actually not quite as healthy as people like to think. A Purdue researcher notes that people should avoid diet soda much as much as regularly sweetened soda. Susan E. Swithers, Ph.D., a professor of psychological sciences and a behavioral neuroscientist at Purdue also highlighted the dangers of artificial sweeteners, including no-calorie sweeteners.
On the study, Swithers noted-
“There is a lot of pressure from the public health sector to find solutions to counter the rise of obesity and chronic disease, and there is a lot of money and business at stake for the food industry as it develops and promotes these products.
Beverages are becoming political issues as government leaders and politicians seek regulation and taxing to limit their availability and consumption, but most of these measures exclude diet soft drinks because they are perceived as healthy.
When it comes to making policy decisions, it’s more important than ever that the science is considered and that the public understands what the science says in order to help them make the best health decisions.”
We looked at why diet soda is just as unhealthy as regular soda, and some of the results were truly shocking!
Depression
According to a recent study, excessive consumption of diet soda can increase depression rates by 30 percent. People that drink four cans or more had more chances of depression than regular soda drinkers. On the other side, drinking coffee seemed to offset some of the damage, although not all.
Kidney Damage
It seems like diet soda can really hurt the kidney. In a study over 20 years, there were instances of 30 percent greater reduction for people who drank diet soda frequently.
Type 2 Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome
A scientific journal named Diabetes Care found that drinking diet soda daily can increase your chances of metabolic syndrome. The study also find that there was a 67 percent increased risk of type 2 diabetes for those that drink diet soda daily.
Cardiovascular Disease and Compromised Lungs
It turns out diet soda can severely affect the cardiovascular system. The University of Miami and Columbia University researchers examined 200o adults over 10 years and found that diet soda drinkers were more likely to suffer a stroke or a heart attack, as well as suffer from cardiovascular diseases.
The soda also increases your risk of developing asthma and COPD symptoms. The dose-response relationship means that the more diet soda you intake, the more damage you can incur!
Damage to Brain’s Antioxidant Defense System
Aspartame is a common artificial sweetener in diet sodas is known to hurt the brain’s antioxidant defense system. Long-term consumption of this sweetener leads to an imbalance in the antioxidant/pro-oxidant status in the brain, that involves the glutathione-dependent system.
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